ILLINOIS LONGITUDINAL AND RELATIONAL CHILD AND FAMILY RESEARCH DATABASE

The Integrated Database on Children and Family Services in Illinois is a state-level longitudinal and relational database constructed out of administrative data maintained by public agencies serving children an d families. This database, which when complete will document all child contact with Illinois public services over 7 or more years, links ind ividual client records both longitudinally and across agencies. The da tabase yields a dynamic, client-level view of human services and can s upport a wide variety of research. This paper describes the major chal lenges involved in creating such a database: acquiring and working wit h agency data, database design, record matching, creating summary reco rds, and normalization. We also briefly discuss some methods of analys is, such as event-history and geographical analysis, to which the data is particularly suited.